July 4, 2011

 

EU wheat harvest to slide after drought

 

 

The EU wheat harvest, making up a fifth of world production, will slide this year after drought slashed yields in France and the UK, farm lobby Copa-Cogeca and cereal-industry group Coceral forecast.

 

Farmers will reap 129.9 million tonnes of wheat, 3.5% below last year's harvest, Brussels-based Copa-Cogeca said in an e-mailed statement today, while Coceral forecast production of the grain will slip 0.8%.

 

France, Germany and the UK, the largest EU wheat growers, had the driest spring in decades. Soils in France's northern half held the least water in 50 years in April, as the drought prompted water-use restrictions in two-thirds of the country.

 

"In view of the drought this year which has affected large parts of the EU, the estimates are still very uncertain," Ian Backhouse, chairman of Copa-Cogeca's cereals working group, said.

 

The EU harvested 134.6 million tonnes of wheat in 2010, according to the Copa-Cogeca report. The group in March had forecast a 2.3% increase in European wheat output.

 

Soft-wheat production in the EU is forecast to slide 2.9% to 122.2 million tonnes, while the harvest of durum wheat, the hard variety used to make pasta and couscous, may fall 12% to 7.74 million tonnes, according to Copa-Cogeca.

 

Brussels-based Coceral forecasts the EU soft-wheat crop will slip 0.3% to 126.5 million tonnes and durum production will decline 7.1 % to 7.89 million tonnes.

 

Barley production is forecast to slide 4.4% to 50.4 million tonnes, Copa-Cogeca forecasts. Coceral estimates harvest of the grain will slip 1.5% to 51.76 million tonnes.

 

EU corn production will rise 9% to 60.2 million tonnes, according to Copa-Cogeca, or 3.5% to 57.2 million tonnes according to Coceral, respectively.

 

Both lobby organisations forecast a smaller rapeseed crop as a result of a smaller area and more sunflower seed on increased planting, respectively.

 

Copa-Cogeca expects an 8.4% decline for rapeseed to 18.1 million tonnes, contrasting with a 9.1% jump for sunflower seed to 7.34 million tonnes. Coceral estimates rapeseed will fall 10% to 18.5 million tonnes and sunflower-seed output will progress 6.4% to 7.52 million tonnes.